How to Get Rid of Ants without Chemicals

Whether you have black ants, pharaoh ants, or any other type of ants, having your home infested with ants can be very frustrating. Trying to get rid of the ants in an organic, green, and eco-friendly way without polluting your home can be even more frustrating. You may be tempted to buy some toxic bug spray, but try these methods first. Here are some steps for getting rid of ants without the use of chemicals.

Instructions

1. The best way to get rid of ants is to make sure they do not get inside your home. You will need to try and get rid of them outside your home as well as getting rid of all points of entry. You will probably need to caulk in places and perhaps add spray insulation in other places. Keep deep mulch piles and bushes from touching the house, and piles of firewood away from the house. Consider putting a band of petroleum jelly around the circumference of a tree that is infested with ants.

2. Crushed red pepper is one option for creating an unpleasant environment for ants. Cloves, cinnamon, and bay leaves are also not liked by ants. You can use these outside your home or inside your home to make your home uninviting to ants. You can create a liquid mixture of any spicy food like pepper sauce or chili powder and use a spray bottle to spray it on the ants.

3. Sprinkling corn meal around your yard is another way to control ants. The corn meal will get eaten by the ants and then will swell up inside their stomachs and kill them. You can also sprinkle the mound with baking soda or baby powder.

4. Use vinegar, a green cleaning product, to clean your home very well, especially the kitchen. Ants do not seem to like the smell and cleaning gets rid of any crumbs that the ants like.

Tips & Warnings

• If you need to hire an exterminator, try to find one that does not use harmful chemicals. There are many eco-friendly exterminators who will not pollute your home, yard, or water.

Resources

• eHow Going Green Guide